The Catan Horror: From Camp to Quest

Suggested in my last entry, “Making an Extended Rest Matter,” there may be a reason for roads and settlements beyond the obvious “where else will you sell your extra treasure.” If we say, for example, that camping out in a town or settlement limits a character’s movements to the immediate area, and the distance from civilization limits the types of adventures a character can find…

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The length and difficulty of an adventure is directly proportional to how much time a character spends looking, and how difficult it is to find. Since finding an inn and a job in town is fairly straightforward, the jobs a character can find will involve fewer encounters, and will generally be easier to accomplish in a short amount of time.

Out and away from town, on the roads between settlements and in the trackless wilderness, characters endeavor just to find a safe place to sleep, let alone find the adventure they seek. Furthermore, access to food, water, and trade is limited the farther the party strays from civilization.

One can assume that part of the Challenge of locating a camp involves finding work to keep the party occupied. There are no specific number of quests or adventures made available to the group, they’re instead limited primarily based on how much energy they have to spend seeking adventure from day to day.

Similar to how action points are granted at the end of an Extended Rest, with a bonus point awarded for achieving a milestone, stamina (or “energy”) is awarded at the end of an Extended Rest, with a bonus point being awarded every other day. In this case, you could say that surviving two days is the equivalent of achieving a milestone.

Characters must try to achieve as much as possible each week, to try and be as frugal with their energy as they can. It’s in their best interest to take as few Extended Rests as possible to maximize the experience they can squeeze out of each adventure or challenge. Evil never sleeps, and while the party rests, their enemies grow stronger.

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Once I crunch some numbers to see how long it takes for a character to adventure and gain enough experience to advance their level (which honestly shouldn’t be too much different) I should do some work in determining the relative progress of the characters’ adversaries, maybe come up with some antagonist rules.